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Perception<br />
so clearly infatuated with evolution is<br />
also involved in it? It seems <strong>here</strong>tical.<br />
Would a God who grows necessarily<br />
imply prior imperfection (<strong>to</strong> anyone<br />
but a rationalist)? What if it were true<br />
that like a child out of time who has<br />
never aged, God delights in tantalizing<br />
discovery more than static certitude?<br />
Singing “We are one in the Spirit” is<br />
not just a bromide metaphor!<br />
“In the beginning was the Word,<br />
and the Word was with God, and the<br />
Word was God” (Jn 1:1). The Greek<br />
term for that eternal entity is logos.<br />
Its connotations are abstract, cool,<br />
depersonalized, clinical, erudite and<br />
Our lives are either speckles of light<br />
against infinite darkness or smudges<br />
of gray within infinite Light.<br />
We are <strong>here</strong> <strong>to</strong> discover our shining.<br />
In 1932 Werner Heisenberg<br />
won the Nobel Prize for “the principle<br />
of uncertainty,” maintaining that in<br />
the suba<strong>to</strong>mic world the consoling<br />
predictability of New<strong>to</strong>nian physics<br />
only sort of applies. The best goal one<br />
can achieve in predicting activity in the<br />
suba<strong>to</strong>mic world is <strong>to</strong> aim for “high<br />
probability,” like people do when they<br />
settle on a career, choose a mate or<br />
have children. Every act of faith is a<br />
calculated risk. Even the Thomists of<br />
the First Vatican Council, who declared<br />
under anathema that we can know God<br />
with certainty, accepted three degrees of<br />
certainty: absolute, physical and moral<br />
(that is, high probability).<br />
For a century, quantum physics has<br />
enabled those unafraid of open minds<br />
<strong>to</strong> juggle all sorts of incompatibles.<br />
The a<strong>to</strong>m looks nothing like the old<br />
consoling image of a tiny, predictable<br />
New<strong>to</strong>nian solar system. An electron<br />
“is” sometimes a pellet and sometimes<br />
a wave, depending on your viewpoint.<br />
Thus, if you fired an electron at a<br />
hypothetical barrier with two holes, it<br />
could go through both holes at once<br />
or reappear on the other side without<br />
penetrating the barrier. Nature is made<br />
up not of isolated, discrete building<br />
blocks but rather patterns of energy<br />
(quanta) interrelating. We are made<br />
of stardust. Every paltry pebble is a<br />
pulsating multi-universe. Is the “realest<br />
real” what we can see or what “is”?<br />
mechanized - in short, scientific. In<br />
contrast, the Aramaic for that same entity<br />
is dabhar, which the Irish theologian<br />
Diarmuid O’Murchu insists is best<br />
translated as “an irresistible creative<br />
energy exploding in<strong>to</strong> prodigious<br />
creativity.” That understanding is<br />
closer <strong>to</strong> fecund primeval swamps than<br />
<strong>to</strong> the cultivated groves of academe.<br />
Such an insight does not deny rational<br />
theology, but it suggests that the idea<br />
of the Almighty and our religious<br />
connections are severely impoverished<br />
without the corrective of its (seemingly<br />
incompatible) opposite.<br />
The Inexhaustible Energy<br />
Genuine science - physical,<br />
psychological, theological - must<br />
humbly accept that any of our formulaic<br />
traps cripple the mercurial truth they<br />
try <strong>to</strong> encompass. All sciences must<br />
submit <strong>to</strong> the Truth rather than try <strong>to</strong><br />
dominate Him/Her/Them.<br />
The quantum principle of<br />
complementarity <strong>to</strong>lerates ambiguity,<br />
approximation, probability and<br />
paradox. Bipolar magnets and brains,<br />
the sexes, Trinity, symbiosis, Yin/<br />
Yang, transubstantiation - these are not<br />
antagonisms but fertile <strong>to</strong>getherness,<br />
not indifferent potentiality but<br />
eagerness <strong>to</strong> be fruitful and multiply.<br />
Why pretend that we understand what<br />
defies comprehension? Despite our<br />
certitudes, matter is not basically solid.<br />
E = mc2 means energy (E) is the same<br />
as mass (m) times (c) the speed of light,<br />
squared. “If I go up <strong>to</strong> the heavens,<br />
you are t<strong>here</strong>; if I make my bed in the<br />
depths, you are t<strong>here</strong>” (Ps 139:8).<br />
This is not pantheism, which<br />
postulates that God has no identity<br />
apart from the universe. St Gregory<br />
of Nyssa wrote, “When one considers<br />
the universe, can anyone be so simpleminded<br />
as not <strong>to</strong> believe that the<br />
Divine is present in everything,<br />
pervading, embracing and penetrating<br />
it?” Hildegard of Bingen: “Mine is the<br />
mysterious force of all that lives - I,<br />
the fiery power.” William Blake: “To<br />
see a World in a Grain of Sand/ And a<br />
Heaven in a Wild Flower/ Hold Infinity<br />
in the palm of your hand/ And Eternity<br />
in an hour.” And Hopkins, “The world<br />
is charged with the grandeur of God.”<br />
Imagine feeling that at Mass.<br />
We are made of<br />
stardust. Every paltry<br />
pebble is a pulsating<br />
multi-universe.<br />
Spirituality is, as Vik<strong>to</strong>r Frankl<br />
put it, “man’s search for meaning.”<br />
We are the only species whose choices<br />
are not branded in<strong>to</strong> the fibers of our<br />
natures. We must choose <strong>to</strong> be who<br />
we are. But first we must discern what<br />
human beings are for. And we have<br />
only two backgrounds against which<br />
<strong>to</strong> measure our worth. Our lives are<br />
either speckles of light against infinite<br />
darkness or smudges of gray within<br />
infinite Light. We are <strong>here</strong> <strong>to</strong> discover<br />
our shining (see Mt 5:14).<br />
Liturgies that make the<br />
community as important as its Host<br />
miss a crucial truth; so we ought not<br />
limit ourselves <strong>to</strong> a companionable<br />
fellowship with the Good Shepherd.<br />
Rather, we are connected in<strong>to</strong> an<br />
Inexhaustible Energy whose infusion<br />
ought <strong>to</strong> make us recognizably more<br />
alive the rest of our week than those<br />
who ignore Him/Her/Them. •<br />
Courtesy: America<br />
JIVAN: News and Views of <strong>Jesuits</strong> in India OCTOBER 2012 17